Christmas Ornament Plans

My wife and I were talking a few nights ago.

There is concern, this holiday season, about how our 16-month-old son will handle the Christmas tree and its glowing lights and sparkling decorations.

My wife has a lot of really nice ornaments that have great value to her. I must admit, our tree always looks incredibly wonderful, almost awe-inspiring.

In the past the concern has always been about the cats. We all know cats like to climb trees, especially indoor cats--how often do they even get the opportunity?

We've survived five holidays without any major disasters to the tree at the paws of out cats. There was the year that the tree stand failed to work properly, but a simple rigging of some string and anchoring the tree to various heavy objects in the dining room fixed all that.

That was my idea, and while not the best solution, we did have a great ropes course to navigate through the holiday season.

So we've escaped cat-destruction each year, but now we have new worries.

Our son is a cross between a young Jacques Cousteau and Benjamin Franklin. There's no limit to what he'd like to mess with. He's especially drawn to electronics and things that sparkle.

My wife's solution? Well, while the youngster is strong, we know he can't knock over the tree (there's a new and improved tree stand in its second year), but the ornaments are a completely different story.

My wife has set up shop in the dining room and is on a quest to make all the low-hanging ornaments this year.

In the process, she's also discovered she likes to make sock monkeys. Not your traditional boring cream and red monkeys either. She's discovered a use for the fuzzy socks I used to get her that she doesn't like because they make her feet sweat. I don't wear socks, so I know nothing about that.

Her monkeys are a mismash of plaids and flames. She's also created some owls, a dog, and a tree (that resembles, to me, the mushrooms on Super Mario).

They are awesome and I think a new tradition has started. She's made ornaments before, but this year she's pulling out all the stops. One of the things I love about my wife is her child-like approach to creativity.

Too often, we as adults, take a lazy approach to solutions. There's nothing we can't buy or pay someone to solve for us. These solutions have provided our holiday decorations with a sense of homemade which is unique and fun. We've got, among other things, our own stockings, that we each made ourselves, ornaments, and a homemade tree skirt.

This year's Christmas will be quite an adventure. Surely most of the ornaments will find themselves scattered around the living room floor and they will be part of the nightly pick-up-and-clean-up session that takes place in our home.

I haven't mentioned this yet, but I'm most concerned about the presents themselves. The boy can't see a newspaper, or any magazine, without wanting to rip it to shreds, in fact he's doing just that right now.

There's going to be a lot of wrapping and re-wrapping in our home this season.